How I View Hard Work
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend and I left thinking that maybe I don’t have the same perspective on various different things to the standard, that I approach situations differently. This very conversation was the catalyst for me to write this post. I by absolutely no means believe that my perspective is the right perspective. I think that the way I view things might challenge someone else, and in this particular instance how they view hard work.
I love hard work, actually I love seeing my hard work pay off. I think it is one of the most satisfying things; to see the culmination of my dedication, perseverance, and commitment to whatever task I may be doing. That’s understandable, right? The hours you put in, the compromises you made, were all worth it and it’s great to see that they’re not in vain.
But there are numerous occasions whereby I am committing myself and putting long hours in, and I just don’t see the outcome for days, weeks, months or even for years. But I generally try not to get too disheartened, and that can be difficult to do. In this day and age it's more and more common to expect everything now, that immediate desire for validation, and not a minute later.
Kobe & Lebron - purveyors of hard work
I view hard work and it’s culmination as: what I put in, I will get out. How and when this reward will present itself, I really don’t know. Maybe that’s the fun of it? You just have to have complete blind faith that it will be worth it. Or purely do it for the fun and enjoyment of it, and who cares about whether anything comes from it.
It’s almost akin to a stone dropping into a puddle. Your hard work is the stone, and the result of this hard work are the ripples radiating outward. In some instances the ripples will be immediate, but in others they will be slightly delayed, some ripples will be greater, while others will be barely visible. Whether we like it or not, the result of our hard work will be much more delayed than the arrival of the final ripple in the puddle.
From what I can tell the extent of these rewards are also unknown. Whether it really is a case of: “what I put in, I will get out,” I really don’t think so. It would be far too simple and fortuitous for that to happen. I think if you do invest time and effort you will get something out of it, but whether that reward meets your expectations is a different story. Once again trusting that the commitment and compromises that are made are worth it, regardless of the size or the extent of the subsequent reward.
Last year I worked religiously creating this website, in all honesty it was quite anticlimactic setting it live. I nearly expected fireworks to go off when I hit “Post,” especially after the amount of time I spent hunched over my laptop. But that’s what happens, you can’t expect instant results. You have to have patience, and now a year on I’m seeing the culmination of that hard work and that culmination is coming about in many forms.
It’s the exact same with going to the gym. In being consistent with your training you see the effect after weeks and months, rather than hours and days. There may be a change in your physique or an increase in the weights you lift. But that never happens overnight. It’s long term.
The culmination of your hard work will present itself at some point, but it’s a matter of when and do you trust that it will arrive? There is also the matter of will you keep working in the meantime to hopefully experience further results and rewards, whatever they may be? It’s worth questioning as to whether you love what you do so much, that on the occasion you don’t get the result that you want, that you will continue your hard work or will you give up completely? A lot of questions and probably not a whole lot of answers.